This exquisite wine from Margaret River is as close to perfect as any Margaret River has produced – and it gets my highest-ever score. Moss Wood’s Keith Mugford reckons that if he couldn’t make a good wine from the 2014 vintage he might as well give up. Well, he and wife Clare sure have made a great wine – the best Moss Wood cabernet yet and a drop that I award my highest-ever score.

In what was a brilliant growing season, Mugford has created a near-perfect wine. He has captured all that is exceptional about Moss Wood cabernets: ethereal perfumes and refined palate profiles. With the first sniff of the 2014, I was taken back to the 2001 and 2005, and the more distant 1975 – Moss Wood vintages that are among the greatest. But this new release stands alone.

The wine follows the usual combination of predominantly cabernet sauvignon, with small amounts (4 per cent) of petit verdot and cabernet franc. Just 17 per cent of the French oak is new, showing that when you have great fruit sometimes less new oak is more. And like most recent vintages, the slightly earlier picking dates have allowed Mugford to produce wines of slightly less alcohol, which contributes to the overall elegance and refinement.

So, my dilemma was: would I push my points to a score I have never given – a huge 99 out of 100.

I paced the room, arguing with myself. Eventually I said: “Stuff it, Jordan; be brave.” So, if you are at all serious about your cabernets, then this, even at $128 a bottle, is essential buying. In stores from May 1 or order online at mosswood.com.au.

Moss Wood Wilyabrup cabernet sauvignon 2014
This is such a classic Moss Wood. As elegant and stylishly poised as any I have tasted through the years. Red berry and violets, with distinctive mulberry and cedar perfumes on the nose and that little oak influence. Such gorgeous perfume, which really makes this wine. The palate is balanced and refined with an elegance you only get in the very best of these wines. Wonderful integration of fine-grained, understated oak and fine, chalky tannins. Almost impossible to fault. A truly great wine and the best ever to come out of this magical region. 99/100 (Best drinking: 2020-50. Alc: 14%)

We introduce our Moss Wood 2014 Cabernet Sauvignon by talking about the weather, as the best way to highlight how good the vintage was. Yes, we always emphasise the weather and regular readers know our strongly held view that the quality of any vintage is largely the product of the vineyard and the growing season it experienced.

As much as technology ensures we minimise the downside of poor weather or human error, ultimately, the quality we deliver in the bottle is almost entirely down to Mother Nature.

It’s an amusing truism that farmers complain about the weather and we grapegrower cockies are no different, watching it closely and fretting about what it will bring. Of course, there’s nothing we can do about it but we can respond to varying conditions and do our best to shepherd the crop safely to harvest. In reality, even in a tough season, the weather makes our lives interesting in a positive way. It seems contradictory but the more difficult the conditions, the more professionally challenging and satisfying the process can be, especially when we make really good wine, with 1989 a shining example.

And then there’s 2014. From the time the vines went through budburst until the grapes were harvested 6 months later, the weather was entirely in our favour. It’s hard to know where to begin.

We had above average rainfall through 2013 but most of it fell at times that caused minimum disruption. In our dry grown vineyards, this is always a bonus. It’s probably churlish to note the Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc yields were very slightly down (about 4%), which we suspect was the result of 4 wet days during flowering. Petit Verdot, which flowered slightly later, wasn’t affected.

Temperatures were ideal, with consistent mild to warm conditions and virtually no extreme heat. The mercury exceeded 400C on only one day, 11th January, lasting for 45 minutes and across the whole season, there were a total of 36 hours above 330C, almost a little too cool for Cabernet Sauvignon, where we’d prefer more like 50 hours, just to be on the safe side. Most importantly, the vines do their best work when the temperature remains in the mid-twenties and they basked for hours in those conditions.

Our role was essentially reduced to that of bystanders but we’re proud to report we succeeded in avoiding disease and stopped the birds with timely application of nets.

With such good conditions, the Cabernet Sauvignon strolled effortlessly across the finishing line of full ripeness on 16th March, 10 days ahead of average.

Winemakers comments:
All this good news meant we were under pressure to deliver in the winery and 2014 is truly a “no excuses”year.

We have been repeating this statement for 45 vintages but will say it again, with feeling. We applied the now traditional Moss Wood production technique of hand picking all the fruit, destemming it into small, open fermenters and establishing fermentation with pure yeast cultures. Once underway, each batch was hand plunged 3 times per day and left on skins for between 16 and 19 days, according to taste, then drained and pressed to a stainless steel tank. Through April 2014, each of the batches underwent malolactic fermentation, and upon completion, were racked to wood. All barrels were French oak barriques and 17% were new.

At the beginning of November 2016, the wine was racked from barrels and blended in preparation for bottling. The blend is 92% Cabernet Sauvignon, 4% Cabernet Franc and 4% Petit Verdot. Fining trials were carried out but none improved the wine, so it remained unfined. It was then sterile filtered and bottled on 21st November, 2016.

Cellaring Notes:
We can’t help but feel with this wine we have made a true rival for 2001 and 2005. It is not exactly the same as those two, having slightly lower alcohol and with that more vibrant fruit lift, but this is splitting hairs. Like those two wines, the depth, balance and length point to long aging potential but in the short term, we are more than happy to recommend it for early drinking, to enjoy its youthful generosity. However, this wine will repay serious cellaring and develop to full bottle bouquet at around 20 to 25 years of age. After that, it will continue to provide enjoyable drinking until at least 40 years of age.

1. Make herb butter by putting butter, shallot, parsley, chives, capers, mustard, lemon rind, Worcestershire sauce, salt and a good grinding of black pepper into a small bowl. Using a fork or wooden spoon, beat mixture until ingredients are combined. Slowly add lemon juice, beating as you go, until combined.

2. Place herb butter on a sheet of non-stick baking paper then roll and shape it into a log about 4cm in diameter, twisting the ends of the paper like a cracker. Chill for about 1 hour (or store for up to 2 weeks).

3. Place a heavy grill pan or frying pan over a high heat and cook steaks until done to your liking.

4. Place two 1cm slices of the chilled butter on each steak and pop under a hot grill until starting to melt. Serve immediately.